Mauro Schmid is just off the podium with two days to go.
Rémi Cavagna instigated the day’s main move, taking with him two riders what turned into a three-man breakaway that animated the stage starting and finishing in Valbroye, a small town in the canton of Vaud. The French Champion, who had tried his luck also two days ago, was the “engine” of this small group that pulled away after just ten kilometers, padding their lead to four minutes by the time they arrived at the bottom of Châbles, the second of the stage’s five classified climbs.
The gap remained stable until 60 kilometers to go, when it began to steadily come down and fluctuate around two minutes. Clicking off about five seconds per kilometer, the rampaging peloton managed to claw back Rémi and his companions just before tackling the Dompierre ascent (3.6km, 5%). Attacks didn’t happen there, but a couple of kilometers later, on the Sédeilles, where one rider put ten seconds between him and the field, a move that was soon nullified on the descent.
In what turned out to be another nervous final kilometer, Mauro Schmid clipped off the front and pushed hard to open a gap, but was pulled back in sight of the line on the finishing straight and the stage went to Patrick Bevin (Israel Start-Up Nation). Mikkel Honoré took a solid top 10 for Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, while Schmid cemented his place at the top of the youth classification ahead of the race’s queen stage.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
